Chien-Ming Wang faces David Price in tonight's series opener at Nationals Park.

Licking their wounds after a sweep at the hands of the Yankees, the Nationals don't get any break this week. The Tampa Bay Rays come to town beginning tonight, and they'll have their ace (former No. 1 draft pick David Price) on the mound for the opener of this interleague series.

With the left-hander on the mound, the Nationals counter with a right-handed heavy lineup. That means Danny Espinosa is leading off, with Tyler Moore in left field and Steve Lombardozzi on the bench. Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse are hitting in the prized No. 3 and No. 4 spots; each slumping hitter is currently taking a round of early batting practice with hitting coach Rick Eckstein, manager Davey Johnson and GM Mike Rizzo all watching from the behind the cage.

Chien-Ming Wang, meanwhile, gets the ball for his fourth start of the season, hoping this will be the start he completes six full innings for the first time. The Nationals could certainly use a quality outing out of the veteran right-hander.

Some people expect that all 40 players on the roster need to be significant contributors with no faults, no lapses, no bad games. Just root for the damn team and take the hiccups and let them roll off your back. I'm ticked that Wang's got a WHIP of about 3.0 as a starter, but I'm not going through the rest of the roster with a fine-tooth comb.

Davey is perfect for this team right now, but alas, I think he will be Nats Bruce B. We saw a glimpses this weekend of what playoff baseball would be like under Davey, not good. Maybe he will get the Nats to post season, but like many other good managers, Danny Ozark years ago with Phillies, will never win a playoff series. Obviously in 1986 he won it all, but over all Davey's playoff record is awful For right now Davey is perfect for this team

Effing first place team with a lot of promise and ppl are effing complaining about brad lidge with Storen hurt the whole year? Gotta be effing kidding me. New ballgame with Det holding it down, Morse provided the charge the team needed, great two-out rally to have everyone focus on the game and get rid of the woe is us attitude. Get your damn natitude going ppl…

@Mick: You win the Dr. Joyce Brothers Award for name-dropping tonight for the mention of Danny Ozark.Can you please elaborate on how the Wizard of Oze has a bearing on tonight's game, this team, Davey or Life as We Know It in the Civilized World.I eagerly await the counselor's response…

I was also SMH, but at the fact that Matsui was the PH against a lefty. Of course, I didn't want to curse anything, so I stayed quiet.Good news: Price out of the gameBetter news: Matsui grounds out for the 3rd out w/ runners @ 2nd & 3rd.

Love the gamesmanship by Davey. The Rays stalled by making the grounds crew hide the sign in the OF. Sooo, Davey using some inside knowledge from Peralta's days with Washington is used against him… Love it

Twitter from the Beats:Adam Kilgore‏@AdamKilgoreWPIn 2010, Joel Peralta pitched for Class AAA Syracuse, managed by current Nats first base coach Trent Jewett. Could he have known?Amanda Comak‏@acomakNats mi. lgr, here tonight RT @stevensouzajr: Literally turned to @ColinBates25 and said you should see the amount of tar Joel Peralta uses!Mark Zuckerman‏@MarkZuckermanAnother wacky coincidence: Joe Maddon was Angels' bench coach in 2005 when that Donnelly thing happened.

everyone jumped on me when I said it was over at 5-2. We just can not score 4 or more runs a game. 3, 4 and 5 hitters are up in bottom of 9th. If this teams best players are our best players they will at least tie the game. After all that with the spit ball pitcher, we hit 3 ground balls, first tow outs on 2 pitches!

rogieshan said… Perfect timing for Wang to pitch himself out of a job. Oh Henry tossed a shutout inning in rehab today. Next move: Marrero in. Nady out. June 19, 2012 10:02 PM ______________________________Expect Henry to pitch lights out until he comes back. It ain't Henry's hand, it's Henry's head.Keep the line moving!

Michele…..we are past giving thanks for "interesting game" excuse for loss….bad baseball decisions by Davey and Bad Roster decisions by Rizzo……Did anyone not know Wang had nothing…..AGAIN….should have pulled him in the first inning and then cut.

The checking of Peralta's glove and subsequent ejection ended our momentum. Gonzalez had just had squashed a Rays rally and the Nats run into the dugout ready to pick up the lumber.Then a 15 minute delay to check everything and everybody. You could hear a pin drop when the Nats came to the plate. All the air came out of the stadium.Not sure it was the best of moves. But we'll never know.You can bet that Strasburg and Gio will be harassed by Maddon.